A Major Article on Cnn Claimed Nigeria to Be the Economic Powerhouse of West Africa

Topic: A major article on CNN claimed Nigeria to be the economic powerhouse of West Africa [1]. The purpose of this report is to give an insight into Africa's most populous nation, its economic status since achieving independence from Britain and the future economic outlook.

Thesis and Argument: Is Nigeria living up to its expectations as the economic powerhouse of West Africa? How has Nigeria developed since gain its independence? Nigeria which gained its independence from Britain in 1960 has a petroleum-based economy, ranked as the 7th largest exporter of oil in the world, by which it is the 3rd largest exporter to the United States, but still 70% of the population lives in poverty [2]. Nigeria up until 1999 was subjected to mostly military rule during which the country witnessed flagrant corruption and massive exodus of public wealth, into the foreign bank accounts of military rulers, politicians, and other government officials. An article from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime stated that Nigeria since its independence from 1960 to 1999 has lost approximately $400billion to corruption [3]. Those stolen funds could have been invested into the country to provide economic growth, provide educational and employment opportunities for millions of Nigeria and so on. Apart from corruption, the crisis in the Niger-delta region is another factor of concern that hinders Nigeria's full economic potential. Militants in this area have inhibited the region's ability to produce crude oil to an optimum capacity. The Niger-Delta region contributes to over 90% Nigeria's national oil and natural gas revenues but still remains one of the poorest parts of Nigeria. Militants intensified their operations beginning of last decade due to inequity of gains for the Niger –Delta region. This is also an evidence of corruption and unaccountability of Nigerian leaders to give the Niger-Delta region its fair share of the proceeds from oil. Another major problem for Nigeria is its Power sector, electricity production is not sufficient